Monthly Archives: February 2018

The weekly grocery shopping bill is many people’s biggest expense after housing. While it’s difficult to save money on mortgages and rents there are plenty of savings to be made by being careful with food and drink expenditure.

Plan a weeks worth of meals, create a list of ingredients and only purchase these items. By sticking to this no food will go to waste and you will be less tempted to purchase extra goodies. When you are in the supermarket where possible try to purchase “own brand” items. You’ll find them much cheaper than leading brands and often the product tastes very similar if not exactly the same.

When you visit your supermarket don’t go in hungry. Research suggests that you will spend around 20% more when you food shop hungry as opposed to shopping after a meal.

Buy in bulk. Markets and greengrocers will give good deals on produce if you buy in larger quantities. Supermarkets often have BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offers. Take advantage of these: freeze the extra items for use in the future. Grow your own, find an allotment or convert part of your garden into a veg patch. You’ll be surprised by the savings and how good home-grown produce tastes.

Shop around – don’t just stick with one shop play the supermarkets against each other. Special offers tend to move from one chain to the next so use price comparison sites to find the best deals before you set off shopping. Buy local. By supporting your local farmers market more money makes its way back to the local economy. Check out old Christmas gifts – there may be food hampers that you have forgotten about full of luxury food and drinks

Try to cook just what you planned for in your recipe, this way you’ll only use the ingredients you’ve bought and not extras. Don’t cook too large a portion, when cooking pasta and rice use a mug to measure out the amount needed. Consider taking a packed lunch to work, cook up a bit more of an evening put it in Tupperware and freeze them.

Once you’ve finished cooking, use up the leftovers. The end of a chicken, cut offs of vegetables can be turned into stock or a tasty homemade soup. Don’t buy bottled water or soft drinks. Drink tap water! A water filter will do wonders if your tap water isn’t too nice or just leave a glass of tap water in a window for around 30 minutes for the chlorine taste to go away.

A seemingly strange piece of advice points to our diets as to why we are unable to get to sleep and that there are certain items of food and drink that can be prime suspects in keeping us awake. The timing of your meals is important to get right as our bodies have a natural rhythm where food is expected, at this time our bodies will produce enzymes and prepare itself for the food it is expecting.

If we eat too late then our metabolic rate and our energy levels can increase at a time when they should be winding down, it is recommended that you don’t eat a large meal any less than 2 hours before you are due to go to sleep. If possible it is recommended that you have a larger meal during the day and a smaller one or even just a snack in the evening to help keep your body’s natural rhythm.

There are some foods that contain a substance called Tryptophan, this can help the brain produce a hormone known as Serotonin, Serotonin helps to promote sleep and is often referred to as the ‘sleep hormone’. There are many items of food that contain the necessary ingredients to help promote the production of this sleep hormone such as milk, eggs, meat, fish and cheese. Cheese in particular is a product rich in Tryptophan – despite the urban myth that cheese can cause you to have nightmares; you’re much more likely to have plenty of decent sleep from eating cheese!

Obviously drinks such as cola, coffee and other fizzy drinks can include high levels of caffeine and sugar; these substances should be avoided in the evening and even the late afternoon. Many children will drink sugary drinks with their dinner and this can mean they are difficult to get to sleep in the evening as their abundance of energy is topped up. A better choice would be milk or natural fruit juices and this goes for adults as well as caffeine and sugar have just the same effect on them too.

If you and your partner want to lose weight together, there is nothing better than going on a couples diet. A diet for couples is more effective than each of you going on different diets separately. It gets even worse if you see your partner eat fattening food while you try to lose weight. How would you feel it you were trying to cut down on sweets and then see your partner munching on a chocolate bar in front of you?

You can start a couples diet by planning a menu for two. There are some types of food and drinks that you should get at the grocery or a health food store that will enhance your weight loss plan. Don’t presume that diet food is supposed to taste bad. You can still enjoy eating healthy food if you know how to choose what to pick up at the grocery store. Here are tips about food and drinks when going on a couples diet:

1. Water is the healthiest beverage you can drink whether you are on a diet or not. Start your day with a glass of water. Have some too before each meal to decrease your hunger pangs and appetite. Have some more during your meal, and end the night with more water.

2. Switch from flavored and carbonated drinks to fresh fruit juice. Many fizzy drinks like soda, carbonated and flavored water are actually full of sugar which become calories. These are fattening when you take too much of these drinks. Soda can be addictive, so try to cut the soda habit and replacing it with healthier fruit juice.

3. Now that we are talking about fruit juice, it is better to make your own with a juicer or buy commercial fruit juices that don’t have any sweeteners or additives. Choose fruits that have a lot of fiber content and vitamins like pineapples or oranges. You can also add some vegetables to your fruit juice like liquefied carrots. Carrots are also able to fight diseases like cancer.

4. Eat a lot of fresh fruits that are high in fiber instead of snacking on potato chips or chocolates. Pineapples, apples, grapes and berries are good choices. Watermelon has a lot of liquid content which is also good. Grapes and berries contain a lot of antioxidants. There are also other kinds of food that are high in fiber like bran cereals, legumes, peas, barley, rye, and soybeans.

5. Vegetables should also be a part of your diet menu. Start with broccoli, carrots, cauliflowers, celery, zucchini and tomatoes. Vegetables will also help you lose weight aside from making you more healthy. Green leafy vegetable are better choices although green salads are also good. When eating salad during a couples diet, get fat-free dressing.